Recent Reforms and Overall Grades

Since the third edition of Policing for Profit, published in 2020, by far the most sweeping forfeiture reform has been Maine’s. In 2021, the state abolished civil forfeiture. It also strengthened innocent owner protections in criminal forfeiture cases, shifting the burden to the government. ¹  

Three other states raised the standard of proof to forfeit property. Arizona enacted a conviction provision, while Kansas and Washington state raised the standard of proof from preponderance of the evidence to clear and convincing. ²  Arizona and Washington, along with Alabama and Delaware, also improved innocent owner protections. ³

No state reduced or repealed the financial incentive.

Some states also, or instead, enacted reforms that improve due process, though they are not of the type graded in this report. For example, among the states with graded reforms:

• Maine established prompt post-seizure hearings and barred law enforcement from transferring seized property to the federal government for forfeiture “unless in conjunction with a federal criminal case.” ⁴
• Arizona eliminated nonjudicial “uncontested forfeitures,” banned on-the-spot waivers used to pressure people into abandoning seized property, and established prompt post-seizure hearings. ⁵  
• Washington extended owners’ deadline to file a claim from 45 days to 60 days. ⁶
• Alabama prohibited seizures of currency less than $250 and vehicles worth less than $5,000; allowed innocent owners to request an expedited hearing; required police to show probable cause within seven business days of a seizure; and prohibited law enforcement from engaging in one type of federal equitable sharing—adoptions—unless the seized property includes more than $10,000 in currency. ⁷
• And Delaware required a criminal charge for forfeiture, prohibited seizing or forfeiting currency less than $500, and created a right to attorney fees for owners. ⁸  

The most common reforms not graded by this report, enacted by 11 states, addressed transparency. Most notably, New Jersey adopted IJ’s model reporting legislation, giving it one of the best forfeiture transparency laws in the country. ⁹  (See “Forfeiture Transparency and Accountability: A Nationwide Necessity.”)

This is progress. However, the pace of reform has notably slowed compared to the five-year period between the second and third editions of this report. States and the federal government enacted 47 forfeiture reform bills from 2015 to 2020, as documented in the third edition, but less than half that number since then. What has not changed is that, in both time periods, relatively few reforms have tackled the central problems with civil forfeiture laws that we grade in this report.

As a result, most states continue to grade poorly. Table 1 and Figure 4 show each state’s overall civil forfeiture law grade as of 2025, and Appendix A explains how we combine each grading element into overall grades. Thirty-five states and the federal government receive a D+ or below, reflecting large financial incentives, low standards of proof, and poor protections for innocent owners. Massachusetts earns the country’s only F.

Only two states earn an A overall: Maine and New Mexico. These states abolished civil forfeiture; the government bears the burden of proving a third-party innocent owner knew about the illegal use of their property to forfeit it in criminal court; and they give police and prosecutors no financial incentive to pursue criminal forfeiture.

A few other states receive an A- (Wisconsin) or B+ (Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia) because they have no financial incentive but could improve their standard of proof or innocent owner protections.

Figure 4: Civil forfeiture law grades

Table 1: Civil forfeiture law grades ranked

State	Grade
Maine	A
New Mexico	A
Wisconsin	A-
North Carolina	B+
District of Columbia	B+
Maryland	B+
Missouri	B+
Connecticut	C
California	C
Florida	C
Oregon	C
Colorado	C
New York	C
Mississippi	C-
Vermont	C-
Nebraska	C-
Alaska	D+
Louisiana	D+
Texas	D+
Washington	D+
Minnesota	D
New Hampshire	D
Indiana	D
Montana	D-
Illinois	D-
Rhode Island	D-
South Carolina	D-
Arizona	D-
Iowa	D-
Nevada	D-
Pennsylvania	D-
Utah	D-
Michigan	D-
Alabama	D-
Delaware	D-
Ohio	D-
Kentucky	D-
Arkansas	D-
New Jersey	D-
North Dakota	D-
Virginia	D-
Kansas	D-
Tennessee	D-
Wyoming	D-
Georgia	D-
Hawaii	D-
Idaho	D-
Oklahoma	D-
South Dakota	D-
West Virginia	D-
Federal Government	D-
Massachusetts	F

Note: States are ranked by grade point average on a 4.0 scale. See Appendix A for details of how the grades were created.